You went where, now?
by turambar499
Summary: It bothered me very much that there was barely any acknowledgement of the crossover with Supergirl in The Flash 2x18, especially since it introduces a rather large plot hole. Why would Barry be so intent on finding a new way to cross into another Earth when he literally did just that? This is my attempt to fix it.
_It bothered me very much that there was barely any acknowledgement of the crossover with Supergirl in The Flash 2x18, especially since it introduces a rather large plot hole. Why would Barry be so intent on finding a new way to cross into another Earth when he literally did just that? This is my attempt to fix it._

 _The normal notes: Characters, environments, etc. belong to CBS and the CW. Context and a couple dialogue lines are taken from The Flash 2x18, "Versus Zoom," and Supergirl 1x18, "Worlds Finest." This is written purely for fun. Constructive criticism is always welcome. Insults and the like…not so welcome, but I guess it's a free country._

Barry looked around, wide-eyed. "I'm back," he said, surprised. "How long was I gone?"

Cisco beamed at him. "Let's put in this way: You just annihilated your old record."

"Yeah, you went four times faster than you have ever been," Caitlin exclaimed, flushed with excitement over their latest achievement. "That's faster than Zoom!"

Barry looked at Caitlin in bewilderment. "Four…times?" he asked, breathlessly. Caitlin nodded, still beaming. His mind frantically tried to reorient itself, remembering what he was doing just before ending up on Supergirl's world. "Wait, it's the same _day_?"

Iris raised an eyebrow and smiled, confused. "What are you talking about, Barry? We just talked to you maybe thirty seconds ago, when you were in Keystone." His eyes practically bugged out of his head. "Are you okay?" Iris asked, growing concerned. She glanced at Caitlin and Cisco, but they were as nonplussed as she was.

Barry Allen, the fastest man alive, suddenly felt the need to sit down. He drew a chair and put his head in his hands, which mildly alarmed everyone. They rushed to his side, but when he looked up, he was smiling, an incredulous but happy look in his eyes.

"You guys are _not_ going to believe what just happened."

…

…

…

"So let me get this straight," Caitlin said, her hands on her hips as if she was convinced Barry was spinning them some elaborate story just to wind them up when their emotions were high. "You ran straight onto a completely new Earth, teamed up with an alien to fight a couple of bad metahumans, and then convinced her to throw you into a dimensional breach that you took to get back here."

"That's pretty much it, yeah," Barry nodded. Caitlin stared at him, still waiting for the "Gotcha!" None came.

"Yeah, uh huh, very interesting," Cisco said, pacing back and forth with his hands folded together and his index fingers pointing up, tapping his chin. He stopped right in front of Barry and looked him dead in the eyes, a look of utmost seriousness on his face. "More important question: Was she hot?"

Barry knew the question was coming, intended to be diplomatic, but he saw the barely contained excitement in Cisco's face and couldn't help nodding and breaking into a grin, giggling like a juvenile. Cisco clapped his hands and thrust his fists into the air while Iris rolled her eyes behind him. "Yeah, baby! A hot alien girl!? Thank you, multiverse!" he finished, looking upwards while bringing his fingertips to his mouth and kissing them. The boys laughed maniacally while the girls made eye contact and shared an internal sigh.

Still smiling stupidly, Barry nevertheless could see the implications of what had happened and was eager to share his thoughts. Patting his hand in the air in a motion to try to calm Cisco down, he looked at Iris and Caitlin, "This _is_ great, though. This basically solves our problem."

"What do you mean?" Iris asked.

"I mean, I just went to another Earth, just by running!" Barry replied, gleeful. "I can make it to Earth 2 now, even with the breaches closed, and now I'm fast enough to beat Zoom!"

He expected to see his excitement reflected in the other's faces, but instead they were cautious, doubtful. "I don't know, Barry," Caitlin ventured. "You weren't even trying to get to Supergirl's Earth. It just sort of happened. How will you control this so you end up specifically on Earth 2?"

Barry nodded, unsurprised by a little resistance. "Well, I did learn to time-travel to a specific point in time, right? Now we're dealing with a specific point in space. This'll just take a little fine tuning."

Caitlin was unconvinced. "Barry, the only way to 'fine tune' this," she said, using air quotes with her fingers, "would be to have you keep running at those speeds until we figure out the factors that control your hopping between worlds. Who knows how many other Earths you'll accidentally end up on until you get it right?"

"But this is our chance," Barry insisted, desperate to convince the room that this was their opportunity to get to Zoom and beat him, once and for all. "I have to give this a shot."

"And we will, Barry," Cisco said, who had calmed down. "But Caitlin's right. This is all too unpredictable." Cisco shrugged his shoulders as Barry's frustrated gaze met him. "I mean, you ran onto Supergirl's Earth under your own power, but you needed her help to get off it. What if you end up in a place without a superfriend to lend a hand?"

Truthfully, Barry hadn't considered that. He wanted to argue more, but Iris stepped up to him, placing her hands on his arms in a placating gesture. "Barry, Caitlin and Cisco are right. You're no good to us if you get lost and stranded somewhere in the multiverse." Barry looked into her eyes, seeing that she also didn't like the idea of him rushing half-cocked into yet another alternate dimension, and smiled resignedly, touched at her concern and also remembering the same advice he'd given Kara just hours before. _You need to slow down._

"Okay," he said softly. "Okay," he repeated forcefully, "we'll try another way."

Iris smiled, glad that he was being patient. "Hey," she said, squeezing his arms for emphasis, "we _are_ getting closer. That thing on your chest," she continued, pointing at the tachyon device, "makes you fast enough to beat Zoom. We're on the right track."

"Right," Barry replied, grateful for her support. He looked up from her to Caitlin and Cisco. "Let's find a way to Earth 2."


End file.
